Digital Commons Network^™

Research Status And Development Trend Of Acidification And Permeability Improvement Technology For Low-Permeability Coal Seam, Shaochuan Chen, Yun Lei, Fuchao Tian, Jie Kang

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Low-permeability coal seams in China are often characterized by mineral-clogged pore-fracture systems, severely limiting coalbed methane (CBM) extraction efficiency. Acidification technology, which involves injecting acidic solutions into coal seams to dissolve minerals and enhance permeability, has emerged as a promising approach. This paper systematically reviews the mechanisms, laboratory findings, and field applications of acidification technology for permeability enhancement in low-permeability coal seams. Key findings include significant improvements in pore connectivity, reductions in gas adsorption capacity, and enhanced gas extraction rates post-acidification. Field tests demonstrate that acid fracturing can increase gas extraction volume by 4-7 times. The study also identifies current …

Improving Energy Reliability In Mining Areas Through Modelling And Control Of Resonance Phenomena In Solar-Integrated Power Systems, Yurii Papaika, Gennadiy Pivnyak, Maksim Malyshko, Yuliya Pazynich, Natalia Howaniec, Adam Smolinski

Journal of Sustainable Mining

This study addresses the emergency and operational transient processes that arise when integrating large-scale solar power plants (SPPs) into electrical load nodes, particularly under conditions of limited power system capacity. With the increasing penetration of distributed generation in Ukraine's energy landscape, challenges related to electromagnetic compatibility and harmonic resonance are becoming more prominent. The research builds upon the foundational work of leading Ukrainian scientific schools and focuses on the specific resonance phenomena observed during the operation of solar inverters in medium-voltage networks, especially in regions with high industrial and mining Energy demand. A novel algorithm is proposed for determining the …

Feasibility Study Of Barite Sourcing From Sediments Emerging Due To Treatment Of Waste Water From Coal Mining, Hubert Makuła, Zbigniew Bzowski, Bogusław Michalik

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The accumulation of mine water in settling ponds, which is discharged due to coal mining, allows them to be cleaned out of suspension, and it is the reason for the accumulation of hundreds of thousands of tons of sediments. One interesting mineral enclosed in these sediments is barite, which is considered in the EU as a critical raw material, but it also contains radium originating from formation water.

The effective barite separation and its beneficiation could constitute a win-win solution because then it would be possible to obtain the valuable radium concentrate for further processing, e.g., in nuclear medicine, and …

Wettability Evaluation Via Contact Angle And Data Mining For Enhanced Oil Recovery, Syasya Wadihah Md. Ja’Afar, Bashir Busahmin

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The oil industry has used many enhanced oil recovery (EOR) strategies to increase crude oil production from reservoirs, particularly as production begins to fall. With a significant quantity of hydrocarbon reserves still existing in the reservoirs, improved oil recovery techniques have the potential to increase oil production, with wettability alteration playing a significant role. To date, there has been no comprehensive investigation of wettability in Brunei's sandstone reservoir. The goal of this research is to determine wettability by contact angle measurement and data mining approaches based on the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) algorithm. …

Theory And Applications Of Natural And Nature-Based Solutions In Estuarine Environments, Elizabeth L. Royer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the theory and application of Nature-based Solutions (NbS), through three unique case studies. This study explores how the broad and interdisciplinary NbS framework can be applied to mitigate common coastal hazards. This framework considers the environment, economics, and social wellbeing, equally in the design and implementation of a solution. The current paradigm, working against nature, which is commonly seen in more passive approaches to hazard mitigation, like grey infrastructure (e.g. a seawall to protect a shoreline against wave action) does not accommodate the extremely dynamic environment. As perspectives shift to “working with nature” NbS can be …

A Guide To Environmentally Sustainable Filmmaking In South Carolina, Christina Vera Dobrowolski

Senior Theses

The entertainment industry has a massive environmental impact. This information is not new in the filmmaking world, as multiple mainstream efforts exist to curb the material-intensive production of live action films and TV. One of these efforts is the use of voluntary sustainable guidelines, which serve as tools that outline sustainable best practices and resources that can help achieve them. However, current guidelines often lack practicality— focusing more on altruism rather than core economic factors that ultimately drive filmmaking. This project aims to address that gap for filmmakers in South Carolina by offering a website featuring attainable, state-specific resources for …

Policy Design, And The Repeal Of Ghana’S Emissions Levy Act: A Multiple Streams Framework Analysis, Anthony Amotoe-Bondzie

Collected Student Papers

Ghana’s 2023 Emissions Levy Act (Act 1112) imposed charges on large industrial emitters and vehicles, intending to internalize pollution costs and raise government revenue. This study applies to Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) to explain the policy’s rapid repeal. Drawing on legislative texts, official reports, and media accounts, it categorizes influences into the problem (rising living costs), policy (design features), and politics (stakeholder mobilization) streams. Key findings reveal that the levy’s mixed design, a per-ton CO₂ fee on industry combined with a flat vehicle ownership tax, undermined its climate rationale and appeared more as a revenue grab. Implementation gaps exacerbated …

Closing The Loop In Sustainable Fashion: Recycling Textile Waste And Its Environmental, Social, And Consumer Impacts, Anthony Amotoe-Bondzie

Collected Student Papers

Fast fashion has intensified textile waste, emissions, and social inequities across global supply chains. This study examines sustainable fashion frameworks and the role of textile recycling in advancing circularity. It employes a qualitative integrative literature review synthesizing interdisciplinary research on waste streams, recycling technologies, policy instruments, and consumer behavior. However, advanced recycling technologies offer environmental benefits but remain limited in scale. Nonetheless, rising consumption offsets efficiency gains, while economic and behavioral barriers hinder systemic change. Technological innovation alone is insufficient; circular design, regulatory enforcement, and reduced overproduction are essential for sustainable transformation.

Corporate Fiduciary Duties And The Climate And Biodiversity Crisis, Eric W. Orts, Sandra G. Schafhäutle

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

This Article argues that addressing one of the most urgent environmental challenges facing humanity today—the global climate and biodiversity crisis—calls for a transformation at the heart of corporate law: its fiduciary duties. After demonstrating how current corporate fiduciary duties are implicated in this crisis, we argue for reform of fiduciary duties operating at two levels: those governing directors and officers of business corporations, and those governing institutional investors and asset managers. We then distinguish between two general kinds of corporate fiduciary duties: permissive and mandatory. We contend that corporate law should accommodate a more expansive understanding of fiduciary duties by …

Four Decades, No Progress: Time For A Columbia River Basin Compact, Liesl L. Bogaard

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Since the Power Act’s passage in 1980, the government entities who develop and implement energy policy in the Pacific Northwest have operated under a congressional mandate to protect fish and wildlife in the Columbia River Basin. However, nearly half a century later, the number of wild salmon and steelhead returning to their native spawning grounds is still in decline, largely due to dam operations in the Columbia and its tributaries. This Note examines the history of hydroelectric power generation in the Columbia River Basin and its impact on fish populations, drawing parallels between the environmental crisis in the Columbia River …

Owning Geothermal Energy, Gabriel Eckstein

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

Geothermal energy holds vast potential for decarbonizing the U.S. energy system, yet the sector remains significantly underdeveloped, supplying only 0.4% of the nation's electricity. A principal barrier to growth is the fragmented and ambiguous legal landscape currently governing ownership of geothermal resources: thirty-three states lack any clear statutory or common-law framework identifying who owns subsurface thermal energy. This Article examines the physical characteristics of geothermal energy, recent developments in the U.S. geothermal sector, and the principal doctrinal approaches that might govern ownership of subsurface heat, including the ad coelum doctrine, common-pool and open-access frameworks, the rule of capture, and public …

Can Financial Literacy Enhance Esg Disclosures?, Xiaoran Jia, Kiridaran Kanagaretnam, Kiat Bee Jimmy Lee, Chee Yeow Lim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using an international sample of firms and two country-level measures of financial literacy, we find robust evidence of a positive relation between financial literacy and firms' Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosures. In cross-sectional analyses, we find that the effect of financial literacy in enhancing ESG disclosures is more prominent in poorer information environments, weaker legal institutions and weaker ESG reporting environments. Lastly, we find that financial literacy also enhances ESG performance. Our study contributes to and extends the literature by providing strong evidence that citizens' financial literacy enhances firms' ESG disclosure and the associated ESG performance.

Testing The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis On Anthropogenic Pressure In Central Alabama, Gavin Terrell

Theses

Biodiversity is fundamental to maintaining ecosystem structure and function globally. Prior to the late 20th century, ecological theory generally predicted that biodiversity would be highest in systems experiencing minimal disturbance. However, Joseph H. Connell challenged this view with the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis (IDH), which posits that species diversity peaks at intermediate levels of disturbance and declines under conditions of both low and high disturbance. Although widely cited, the applicability of the IDH to natural systems remains debated, particularly in the context of anthropogenic disturbances and when diversity is measured beyond species richness alone.

This study evaluated the predictions of the …

Enhancing Urban Garden Capacity By Linking Biodiversity And Ecosystem Function, Mary T. Nguyen, Carleen Rauh, Shelby Gresch, Charlotte Correiro, Heidi Elmendorf, Adriane Fugh-Berman, Gina Wimp, Alexandra L. Decandia

Virginia Journal of Science

Urban agriculture broadly describes food and plant cultivation in metropolitan areas. While biodiversity is thought to support ecosystem health and resilience, the relationship between above-ground and below-ground diversity has been understudied in urban green spaces. This study examines plant, animal, bacterial, and fungal diversity across three distinct urban habitats: a turf lawn, a forb garden, and a farming space. Using bacterial 16S rRNA and fungal ITS2 sequencing, soil nutrient analyses, and surveys of vegetation and wildlife, we connect diverse philosophies in urban agriculture to their role in advancing community diversity and ecosystem function. We found that different urban gardens support …

Imidacloprid Effects On The Survival And Cutaneous Microbiome Of Northern Leopard Frogs, Evelyn Margaret Osterloo

Honors Thesis

Amphibians are experiencing population declines due to habitat loss, climate change, and diseases, particularly chytridiomycosis caused by the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Protection from this fungal infection stems from the cutaneous microbiome. Pesticides have been shown to affect amphibians in a variety of ways, including reducing survival, locomotor performance, and accumulation in body tissues. Pesticides may also lead to changes in the cutaneous microbiome affecting amphibians who rely on these organisms as an anti-Bd defense mechanism. To investigate the effect of imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide, Northern Leopard frogs (Lithobates pipiens) were subjected to sublethal concentrations (control = …

Bird Population Response To Abiotic And Biotic Stresses In Urban & Restored Oak Savannah Habitat, Annabelle Ball

Posters - 2026

Birds are heavily impacted by urban development. Many experience habitat fragmentation and removal of food sources. However, other species can adapt to and even thrive in urban environments, thanks to certain tree species, bird feeders, and buildings. In North America, the house sparrow and the European starling are invasive species that benefit from urban environments (Bartelt, 2011; Fitzwater, 2014). Meanwhile, many habitats across the continent are experiencing restoration/rewilding efforts for the benefit of birds. One such habitat is the oak-savannah, which is characterized by 10-30% canopy cover and a mixture of prairie & woodland vegetation, supporting a high diversity of …

Monitoring Terrestrial Ecosystem Productivity Using Hyperspectral Satellite Data, Serge Tuyambaze

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Accurate estimation of terrestrial Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) is critical for quantifying global carbon sequestration and understanding the terrestrial carbon cycle. While eddy covariance (EC) towers provide standard flux measurements, upscaling these measurements to continuous global coverage remains challenging due to the sparse distribution of flux towers and their small footprints. Remote sensing (RS), especially coupled with eddy covariance data, has been used to estimate GPP at the global scale. Different RS derived productivity models have been developed, including vegetation indices, light use efficiency (LUE) models, solar-induced fluorescence (SIF), dynamic global vegetation models (DGVM), and machine learning. One widely adapted …

Freedom Readers And Sustainable Development Goal 4: Advancing Literacy In Low-Income Communities Of South Carolina, Madison Hayes

Goal 4: Quality Education

No abstract provided.

Do Purpleair Monitors Democratize Data For The Environment?, Christopher Rick, Kyla Lorden

Student Publications

PurpleAir monitors may serve a vital role in marginalized or under-monitored communities nationwide. These low-cost monitors—roughly $300—give communities the ability to monitor their air quality at local geographies in ways that are infeasible for expensive, regulatory-grade air monitors. They also have the potential to aid community advocacy efforts around environmental and transportation policy by giving community members literal ownership over the monitoring, including precise locations, and philosophical ownership over the advocacy efforts. To determine the potential democratization of air quality data by PurpleAir monitors in socially disadvantaged communities, we analyze the sociodemographic characteristics of neighborhoods with PurpleAir monitors. We find …

The Importance Of Body Size And Spatial Scale In Modeling Winter Bird Distributions, Carissa M. Mobley

Student Publications

Birds’ annual cycles include biologically linked breeding and non-breeding seasons, yet most research and bird atlases focus exclusively on the breeding season. There have been very few winter bird atlas projects in North America, and none have been published for the northeastern United States. Short daylight hours and harsh weather limit winter survey coverage, making species distribution models (SDMs) essential for addressing spatial gaps.

I evaluated the optimal spatial scale for SDMs across bird species differing in body size and tested whether optimal scale varies with body mass. Using 16,967 eBird checklists collected during the first winter survey period (December …

Interspecific Overlap In Seabird Diet Throughout The Breeding Season, Alexis V. Berkey

Student Publications

Seabirds are central-place foragers that breed in multi-species colonies, providing an opportunity to study species coexistence. I quantified interspecific competition among four seabird species (common terns Sterna hirundo, Arctic terns Sterna paradisaea, Atlantic puffins Fratercula arctica, black guillemots Cepphus grylle) breeding in the Gulf of Maine in 2022, 2024, and 2025. I hypothesized that, throughout the breeding season, 1) seabird diet would change and 2) interspecific overlap in diet would increase. I compared diets across species and time using direct observation of prey feeds and stable isotope values of seabird egg membranes and blood, which provide …

The Effects Of Climate Change On Competition And Recovery From Disturbance In An Iconic Marine Community, Lauren Tibbits

Senior Theses

This paper explores how the recovery of populations of Semibalanus balanoides is affected by climate variation. In intertidal marine ecosystems, larval recruitment is important in shaping all ecological processes. S. balanoides is a cold-water barnacle species that is competitively dominant over Chthamalus montagui and C. stellatus, two warm-water species. This competitive interaction is well studied, though it is not understood how that competition influences the recovery of S. balanoides after a disturbance nor how this process varies over a temperature gradient. 19 sites were studied across the United Kingdom, spanning from northern Scotland to southwestern England. At each site, a …

High-Resolution Monitoring Of Intra-Seasonal Agricultural Drought Using Sentinel-2 And Machine Learning Across Bimodal Growing Seasons In Kenya, S. Mohammad Mirmazloumi, Harison Kipkulei, Rose Waswa, Tobias Landmann, Tom Dienya, Maximilian Schwarz, Fabrizio Ramoino, Clément Albergel, Gohar Ghazaryan

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Drought presents significant challenges to agriculture, threatening food security and livelihoods, across many regions. In Kenya, recurrent droughts across diverse agro-ecological zones emphasize the urgent need for reliable and scalable drought assessment methods. Although drought assessment with various datasets has been carried out for this region, many of them often use course or moderate resolution data. This study uses high-resolution Sentinel-2 observations and machine learning to monitor intra-seasonal crop conditions and assess drought impacts across bimodal growing seasons. Using pixel-based supervised random forest models trained with multiple vegetation indices as input, we classify croplands into drought-affected and unaffected areas. The …

Unraveling The Intractable Trilemma In Urban Weather And Climate Modeling, Peiyuan Li, Ashish Sharma, Rao Kotamarthi, Alberto Martilli, Subimal Ghosh, Cristina Negri, Scott Collis, Lee Chapman, Fei Chen, Luis M. A. Bettencourt, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Urban weather and climate modeling is constrained by the highly heterogeneous and dynamic nature of cities. It exhibits a persistent trilemma between spatial granularity, spatiotemporal coverage, and physical interpretability. We articulate this challenge and propose a hybrid framework that integrates physics -based models, urban observations, and machine learning. Framing urban modeling as an integration problem across methods and scales, we provide a structured guide for next -generation, decision -relevant urban climate capabilities.

Recovery Of Bioenergy From Industrial Wastewater Using Microbial Fuel Cell, Syed Wamiq Ali, Ghulam Mujtaba, Manzoor Ahmed Sanjrani, Falak Shad

Journal of Bioresource Management

Water problems and Energy demands are increasing particularly in developing countries. Researchers are looking for sustainable technologies that can address increasing energy and environmental concerns. Major reasons behind those emerging concerns are industrialization and rapid development. There is need of sustainable technology which can solve wastewater issues and fulfill energy demand. One of the emerging technologies that have been studied comprehensively is Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC). It is a bio-electrochemical conversion technology that converts organic substrate into electrical energy. Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) is removed as a result of microbial metabolism of organic substrate. Even through technical and economic aspects …

Changes In Land, Ocean, Atmospheric Parameters Associated With The 2025 Myanmar (Mw 7.7) Earthquake, Feng Jing, Akshansa Chauhan, Ashwani Raju, Ramesh P. Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Multiple parameters associated with the land, atmosphere, and ocean were analyzed to study short-term and immediate pre-earthquake changes associated with the 28 March 2025 Myanmar earthquake (Mw 7.7). Anomalous clear-sky outgoing longwave radiation (ClrOLR) and trace gases (CH₄, CO, and O₃) were detected within two months prior to the mainshock. Vertical changes at different pressure levels suggest a possible underground source. High-temporal-resolution observations of the infrared brightness temperature and surface air pressure revealed short-lived fluctuations shortly before the earthquake, which may reflect localized stress adjustments and surface latent heat flux release during the final stage of earthquake preparation. In the …

Sprinkler Package Runoff Risk Tool For Center Pivot Irrigation Systems, Will Bowers

Spring Runoff Conference

Center pivots in Utah 

• 403,524 acres = 67% of sprinkler irrigated fields in the open in Utah 
• Considered one of the most effective sprinkler systems available with technological advancements over the years

Utah Prototype For Visualizing Vulnerabilities Downstream Of Dams, Courtney Flint, Michael Englert, Nicolas Holden

Spring Runoff Conference

The climate question 

• Overtopping = 1/3^rd of all dam failures (ASDSO) 
• Drought concerns and supply uncertainty motivate keeping reservoirs full 
• Overtopping likelier if extreme storm when reservoir full 
• Over much of the country the probability of the annual daily maximum rainfall > 100-year event and the preceding 30-day rainfall >10-year event are going up (Hwang & Lall 2024) 

Microplastics As Physical Hubs Amplifying Antiobiotic Resistance Under Mixed-Contaminant Selection In Wastewater Systems, Liyuan Hou

Spring Runoff Conference

Microplastics (MPs) are tiny plastic particles within the range of (0.1 mm to 5 mm) in size

Coupling Mechanisms Of Fracture Propagation And Proppant Transport Indeep Coalbed Methane Reservoirs, Guo Xiaodong, Zhang Shicheng, Zhang Jingchen, Zhou Changjing, Zhang Chengsheng, Qiu Shixin, Xi Xiangrui

Coal Geology & Exploration

Objectives and Methods Deep coalbed methane (CBM) reservoirs commonly exhibit well-developed beddings, strong mechanical heterogeneity, and high in-situ stress gradients. These characteristics result in pronounced nonlinear fracture propagation and strong multi-field coupling effects during hydraulic fracturing. Consequently, it is challenging to accurately describe the mechanisms governing fracture complexity in deep coal reservoirs using conventional mechanical models for fractures. Using a super-large true triaxial system with dimensions of 2.0 m × 2.0 m × 1.0 m, this study conducted physical simulation experiments on hydraulic fracturing under varying injection rates and viscosities of fracturing fluids. In combination with fracture mechanics and energy …